Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-04-09
PROTESTS FROM EVERY QUARTER.

The lnter-S State Commerce law |
seems to meet with general condem-
nation. The East, as we'll as the
West and South, is beginning to ex-
claim against the law (says the Port
land Oregonian) }, and it looks now as
if nearly the whole country would
soon be against it. The Boston Her
aid voices the judgment of that center
of Eastern trade against the law, by |
remarking that it will surely kill the
grain and wool trade of Boston. For
merly Boston got the same rates on
grain from the West as New York. |
But now, in the adjustment of grain
rates to the Atlantic seaboard, the
trunk lines, taking the shorter haul as
the basis, have made the rate to New
York from Chicago rs cents per 100
pounds, exactly the same as the former
rate, while for Boston the new rate is
80 cents. The wool trade of Boston
has also received notice of an increase
in rates from the Pacific slope, which
tho Herald says must prove prohib.
itory, and the butter and cheese trade
of the city has also been notified of
an increase in rates from the West.
Thus, large part Of Boston's export
trade will be killed by the law. New
York, able to get lower rates, because
she is nearer to the producers of the
West, will take much OF Boston's
trade. New England, therefore, is
likely to be in humor to join the
South and West in their movement
in Congress next winter against the
law.
1t is really edifying to find a great
newspaper in the great city of Boston
protesting against the law for the
same reason urged against it by the
village paper on the Pacific slope.
Thus, the Boston Herald says: "The
design of the bill was ostensibly to
equalize existing injlstices in the di.
rection of distances hauled, but that
this should not be done by raising the
long-haul rates is very plain" This,
too, is the protest Of Portland, Oregon.
Naturally, places situated like Port
land and Boston and Mobile and Gal
weston think the inequalities that
called for remedy were not to be rem
edied by raising the long-haul rate.
Now there is another class of disap-
pointed people. These last live in
the towns of the interior. They
thought, as the Arlington (Oregon)
Times expresses it, that the law, in
stead of raising the rates upon the
long haul, would lower them upon the
short haul But it hasn't turned out
SO. The roads do not reduce the rates
to intermediate places, because they
know they will lose much through
business which they must make up
somehow; and, moreover, they know
that if they once reduce their local
rates they can never restore them.
Taking the circumstances together,
it is not surprising to hear from Boston
the protest against the injury to her
grain and wool business, nor from the
South the declaration that if the con-
sequence had been foreseen tho repre-
sentatives from that section would
have opposed the bill unanimously,
nor from the West the doleful com
plant that the law hurts everybody
and benefits nobody. Nor is it sur
prising to get dispatch from Wash
ington, made up from knowledge of
the protests and appeals that come to
the commission from all parts of the
country, which says: "The very
classes who were most clamorous for
passage are among the first to make
complaint of the harshness Of its pro-
visions. The folly of trying to make
'ron-clad rules for the government of
commerce is already apparent. The
railroads in every direction have been
compelled to change their rates in an
ticipation of the carrying out of the
statute, which makes the burden to be |
borne by the people all the greater,
and even for short distances the prices
OF tickets for carrying passengers
have advanced rs per cent" So much
clearer always is hindsight than fore.
sight in this world.
Wonderful Cures.
Nv n Hoyf & ~ |